EXTREME RISK: Man Who Explore The Titan At 13 Says He Lost Consciousness During The Dive
LAGOS JUNE 25TH (NEWSRANGERS)-The youngest ever person to explore the Titanic wreck has revealed he lost consciousness during his record-breaking dive in a warning to others about the inherent dangers of deep-sea exploration.
Sebastian Harris son of Titanic expedition leader G. Michael Harris, became the youngest person to dive at the site of the infamous shipwreck in 2005 when he was just 13 years old.
With his father, Harris journeyed 12,850 feet below the surface of the icy North Atlantic Ocean in a Russian Mir II submersible.
In total, the trip took 12 hours – about half of which was spent exploring the wreck of the storied Titanic – and earned him a place in the Guinness Book of World Records.
The record is still in place today and a plaque placed on the ship’s bridge commemorates the accomplishment.
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing: disaster nearly struck during Harris’ initial descent.
He explained: “During our dive, we had a small safety issue. Suddenly our oxygen levels started to drop and I fell unconscious while we were diving down.
“Fortunately my father and our pilot did not experience the same issue, otherwise it may have been fatal, and thankfully we had oxygen meters inside of the sub that were showing lower oxygen levels than normal. So we cranked it up and then I was back in the game.
“But these sorts of small issues can and do happen with regularity, so the certification and safety of these vehicles is so important.
“These activities are inherently dangerous. A 13-year-old doesn’t really have a sense of their own morality, so I was blissfully ignorant to a degree, but in different circumstances that could’ve ended in tragedy.”
WARNING SIGNS IGNORED
Harris spoke with The U.S. Sun during a search for a missing submersible that vanished on June 17 near the wreck of the Titanic with five people aboard.
During the interview he theorized that the sub – named Titan, and created by OceanGate Expeditions – had likely suffered a catastrophic implosion during its descent, killing all those on board instantly.
Within 48 hours, Harris’ hypothesis was proven correct: on Thursday, debris was found by authorities on the ocean floor 1,600ft from the Titanic’s bow that was later confirmed to belong to the missing vessel.
In the days since the sub first lost contact, questions and historic concerns regarding the safety and design of the Titan have come to light.
OceanGate has only been providing tours of the Titanic site since 2021, however, experts from within and outside of the company have raised concerns about the submersible as far back as 2018.
It seems like maybe they weren’t taking all available precations and I think many folks in the industry will find that incredibly frustrating.
One ex-OceanGate Expeditions employee hired to protect the safety of submersibles and their passengers and crew, years ago claimed that CEO Stockton Rush – who died on the sub – and other company executives ignored warning signs the Titan may be unsafe.
Similar concerns, along with the claim that the company had ignored industry-wide safety standards, were echoed in a letter delivered to the company that same year by the Marine Technology Society.
In the letter, obtained by The New York Times, the group warned that the “current ‘experimental’ approach adopted by OceanGate… could result in negative outcomes (from minor to catastrophic)”.
With more information coming to light still, Harris said it’s his belief that certain corners may have been cut by OceanGate in their design of the Titan.
“It seems like maybe they weren’t taking all available precautions and I think many folks in the industry will find that incredibly frustrating,” he said.
“When you look at the totality of evidence and the construction of the submersible it doesn’t look good for them.
“The Mir I dove in had a dog hatch at the top of the submarine, which from my understanding is there if you need to open it at the surface and there’s enough time for two or three people to get out.
“But what we’re dealing with in the Titan, there’s no dog hatch, you are placed in an open cylinder and then bolted into place.
“That isn’t consistent with submersible safety standards and it would’ve made [any potential] rescue very, very challenging.
“They don’t have the same tracking devices that you would find on a Mir I or Mir II and so it’s very frustrating to see everything that has happened.”
US SUN
Short URL: https://newsrangers.com/?p=110591
Posted by News Rangers
on Jun 25 2023. Filed under International, National.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
